Yobs cause over £11,000 worth of damage in 8 weeks

Since January 63 windows have been smashed on TWM buses travelling in East Birmingham - costing the company a huge £11,340 to repair.TWM bosses today said this orgy of violence must stop now.The last straw came yesterday when 12 windows, on 5 buses, were smashed by pupils at Washwood Heath School as they travelled along Burney Lane.Not only did they smash windows with the usual array of bricks, a 4" x 4", 3ft long piece of wood was also hurled through a window.In a bid to combat the anti-social behaviour Travel West Midlands has carried out a number of initiatives through Operation Safer Travel including sending dedicated staff to assemblies to educate pupils. Corporate Affairs Director, Phil Bateman, said: "These yobs have a complete disregard to other people’s safety as they have been smashing the windows whilst passengers and drivers have been on board. Luckily no-one has been injured yet and we are doing everything we can to ensure that no-one is in the future. We are currently working with the West Midlands Police, the local authority and schools in the area to tackle this unacceptable behaviour. We need people to contact the police with information so we can prosecute these vandals."

Published 9th March 2004